To achieve predetermined aerodynamic characteristics, vehicles and in particular aircraft often have flap systems in which flaps are movably mounted on a basic body and can be brought by an actuator into a neutral position and into different working positions to influence an air flow surrounding the vehicle or to apply forces onto the vehicle. For example, commercial aircraft have quite a number of different flap systems which are set up for different purposes of use.
The purpose of a high lift system of an aircraft is, for example, to achieve a significantly increased coefficient of lift by enlarging the wing area and increasing the camber of the wing for take-off and landing phases. For this purpose, appropriate flaps are movably mounted on the leading and trailing edges of a wing. To achieve a separation of a flow where there are particularly high angles of attack and particularly low flight speeds, the flaps can often be moved such that gaps form between the flaps and the wing allowing a high-energy air flow to occur on the upper side of the wing.
To achieve optimum operation of a gap-forming flap system of this type, it is imperative that the gap dimensions achieved when the flaps are subjected to air loads are the same as the desired dimensions. Particularly when a flap is configured as a leading edge flap of a wing with a gap being produced between the rear edge of the leading edge flap and the leading edge of the wing, air loads deform the leading edge flap, consequently influencing the gap dimensions. Due to the mounting and guidance of the leading edge flap at individual so-called drive stations which are distributed over the leading edge of the wing, one or more areas of the leading edge flap are positioned almost fixed in space in front of the wing, while various flexing lines can be present in the adjacent regions of the leading edge flap. This deformation of the leading edge flap is independent of a deformation of the wing, so that in an extreme case, gap dimensions which are too small or too large are present between the leading edge flap and the leading edge of the wing in some areas of a conventional flap system.
An overview of the prior art in respect of the configuration of high lift components can be found, for example, in the NASA Contractor Report 4746 “High lift Systems on Commercial Subsonic Airliners” by Peter K. C. Rudolph.